reason | What if we arrested fewer people in the first place, that way we
don't have to panic about exposing people behind bars (and the guards
who take care of then) to the coronavirus? It's a shift we're beginning
to see in some municipalities.
Reason's Zuri Davis has reported
on the mechanisms some courts and jails have been using to release
prisoners early, particularly those who are being jailed for low-level
crimes, in order to stop or reduce the spread of disease among people in
jail.
But many cities are also reconsidering whether the police
actually need to arrest people for certain minor crimes and bring them
to jail for processing in the first place. This is yet another temporary
shift in behavior that might be worth considering even when the
coronavirus is not such an omnipresent threat.
In Philadelphia,
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has set forth new guidelines to
stop police officers from arresting people accused of a host of
nonviolent misdemeanor crimes. Instead, they'll briefly detain the
suspect to confirm identity and fill out arrest warrant paperwork, then
release the suspect. The arrest warrant will be served at a later time
when the coronavirus risk has faded.
The
list of crimes that will no longer lead to people being processed into
jail includes prostitution and all narcotics crimes. (We should hope
this prompts the city to realize they should have never thrown people in
jail for these crimes in the first place.) The list
also includes vandalism, several different types of thefts, burglary,
and even car theft. So while these aren't violent crimes, they also
aren't victimless crimes. This doesn't mean those people won't
be held accountable by the justice system eventually and be ordered to
make amends to their victims, by they're not going to be tossed in jail
for now. Vehicle impoundments are also being suspended.
After making the announcement Tuesday, Outlaw clarified
today that an officer "still has the authority to utilize discretion,
and take an offender into physical custody for immediate processing, if
the officer and supervisor believe the individual poses a threat to
public safety."
Arresting fewer people who aren't dangerous is a
great way to keep jail populations down and reduce chances for the
coronavirus to spread. But it's honestly something that we should have
started doing earlier, unprompted by pandemic, because we have too many
people in jail who don't really need to be there, and because jail time
disrupts many lives in unnecessary ways.
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